Index rockfall near Thin Fingers

[Otto]

Warning of large, loose blocks perched above Thin Fingers base area.

 

While climbing Tatoosh (or "Free at Last" in Smoot, 1989) today, a large flake broke off and smashed into many smaller pieces. One of them is a block a foot and a half long by a foot wide and eight inches thick, perched on a bush. This block, about halfway up the second pitch, the "Dirty Dihedral" (Beckey, 1976), presents a severe danger of falling down at any time. Other, smaller, shards are perched above and below this point. There are also some very large new blocks on the first pitch belay ledge, with the big fir tree, which do not look like they present a danger of falling further.

 

There was a party of four people top-roping Thin Fingers at the time of the rockfall, some sitting at the base. The rockfall came very close to them. Fortunately, none were hurt though one of their backpacks was destroyed.

 

The primary purpose of this message is to warn people as quickly as possible of the dangerous situation at the base of this popular route. The secondary purpose is to inform anyone with the interest and skills to embark on the project of trundling these rocks to eliminate the dangerous situation. Feel free to PM me or email me for further information.

[olyclimber]

thanks for the alert! we were headed right in the area tomorrow, will rethink or go trundling. PM'd for more info...

[ashw_justin]

I was relaxing in the sun, watching one of our party climb Thin Fingers from the comfort of a large flat rock. I was on the verge of napping, wearing my helmet only out of habit, and thinking its only real purpose was to cushion my head from the rock underneath. My pack was lying right next to me since I had been rumaging around for food and gear.

 

RUMBLE/LOOK UP/ROCKS/F*CK/UP AND DIVE. We were pancaked to the wall in a split second, which happened to be slightly shorter than it takes for several cooler-sized granite blocks (and many smaller ones) to fall 40 meters and smash into the area at the base of our climb.

 

One of us got tagged in the head by a fist-sized rock, and a small amount of blood was running down his face from a small gash. We otherwise came out unscathed. The person who was climbing (and the belayer) fortunately were not hit, and the ropes escaped being chopped.

 

We knew that there had been climbers out of sight on a route above us, but there was no verbal warning because the climber, who brought down what he described as a HUGE flake while following, explained that he was simply in shock when it happened (it was unintentional).

 

And now here is my pack. It was unburied from a pile of rocks, EXACTLY were I had been lying down.

 

 

So... watch out for rockfall at the crag. Especially at the base of Thin Fingers and the surrounding area, because large pieces of the flake are presumed to still be up there, perched precariously and waiting to be rained down upon unsuspecting climbers.

[olyclimber]

damn!

[ashw_justin]

I'm putting back the next to the topic in the thread list, hopefully to attract some more attention to the lingering hazard.

[olyclimber]

I'll sticky it too. *HEY, read the info above!*

[ashw_justin]

ok

[Weekend_Climberz]

Hey guys, I was one of the ones there trying to trade you for shit-proof pants.

 

This should be made sticky or something more permanent.

 

Edited: Oh well, fine you already did it then

Edited July 16, 2006 by Weekend_Climberz

[ashw_justin]

Hey guys, I was one of the ones there trying to trade you for shit-proof pants.

 

Nice to meet you Weekend_Climberz.

 

Speaking of this, I also failed to mention that it was recommended to me, by a highly respected member of the climbing community, that I might be owed a new backpack.

 

Truthfully, I am already more than grateful that I'm not in the ICU right now.

[MisterMo]

Fuck oh dear.

 

It's easy to forget that the entire LTW is a bit of a house of cards, everything's all sort of wiggled loose from the quarrying operation.

 

The rockfall against which all shall be forever measured was when the monster overhang which once dominated the western side of the quarry came hurtling down and filled the former pond site with all those giant boulders. It sent a wave of water up and across the railroad tracks. In the midst of a horribly stormy night in wintertime it was witnessed by no one, but the aftermath was pretty impressive.

[mattp]

For the most part, the cliffs shed rocks during winter storms but the heat of Summer can trigger shedding as well. I guess the rock expands as it heats up.

[TimL]

I'll be there Monday and might try to remove some stuff if we are in that area. The right side of the cliff exfoliates a fair bit. A year or two ago several large blocks below Shirly came off and the person who who solo aiding was lucky to get away.

[RuMR]

man, i didn't want to walk over there...i was bracing myself for some really sick stuff...had my buddies dig out their cell phones to call 911...made my kids look away and not come over...

 

Weird weird day at index...not a dull moment all day long...

 

Glad you guys are ok! And thanks for the knife, thai peanuts, and matches...

[ashw_justin]

Thanks RuMR for looking out for us, and sorry for my fit of yelling after we got shelled. I wanted to be sure that people above us knew that we were in the line of fire. The sight of blocks winging down from above is burned into my mind!

 

In a way I'm glad that it was us down there, because we were paying enough attention to reflexively take cover. A larger or less attentive party might have suffered worse.

 

Now, I gotta say, I've never been so glad to be "that guy" with the helmet on at the crag...

[olyclimber]

didn't get to it, hopefully someone will do the community service project soon. TimL?

[RuMR]

Tim...if you head over there, i'd approach it from above and clean on the way down...do not climb into this shit...its a minefield right now...

 

Also, put a note up to keep people away while you are cleaning...

[DCramer]

A significant amount of rock fall at Index occurs in the summer.

 

I once almost killed Jon Stoddard and Mark Twight when they were slow to move while a block was slowly slipping off my lap as I was leading Death To Zeke.

 

The top pitches of the Narrow Arrow Standard also contain many loose blocks. Unless cleaned, this not be climbed when other climbers were below. While on those pitches a few months ago and my partner and I thought we were the only climbers at the Lower Wall. We almost yanked some blocks then but decided without knowing for sure that we were alone trundling would have been too risky.

 

It should be noted that both Smoot and I call the route referred to in this thread “Free At Last.”

[skykilo]

That was pretty freaky scary! Now I'm more than ready for some alpine... I'll take my chances in the hills, thank you.

 

PS- I actually missed this thread because it was a sticky.

[skykilo]

I call that route: "reminder to get the hell out of dodge if dudes are going to climb some relative obscurity next to you."

[boadman]

I was up on Slow Children that day when it happened. We were sure somebody had eaten it. We rapped down a little ways, but someone on the ground told us everyone was o.k. Later, I tried to see where the rock had come down. It looked like it was off to the right of the nice crack at the top of thin fingers by 15 or 20.' Was I seeing the right scar, or did it actually come off of thin fingers?

[skykilo]

You were seeing a scar from where a rock bounced off the wall. The rockfall came from above and to the right of Thin Fingers.

[ashw_justin]

Yeah I'm not sure where the flake originated but it definitely landed right on top of the ground belay for Thin Fingers. To be exact, blocks hit about 5 feet to the right of the lower crack and 8 feet out (and there should be scars at the point of impact, along with some pretty-looking fresh granite blocks). I guess debris of the original chunk may have deflected over our way, if the original trajectory wasn't from directly above.

[lunger]

hearing huge concussions, diving for cover, waiting for impact--truly gripping experience. i oughtta have my head examined.

[ashw_justin]

"TODAY!"

[miller]

Sounds like a few people were thinking about it - did anyone get out there recently and clear off the ledge, etc?

 

Still too sketchy to climb Thin Fingers?